Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Gibson County High School senior Texanna Edwards says she was turned away from the prom because her dress looks like the Confederate battle flag. / Submitted photo

Jackson, TN (by Tracie Simer/The Jackson (TN) Sun) -- High school senior Texanna Edwards was -- like many of her classmates at Gibson County High -- looking forward to her prom last Saturday.

But Edwards' choice of attire -- a knee-length red dress decorated with bright blue stripes and white stars inside the stripes, kept her out of the dance. The school's colors are red, white and blue, but the dress resembles the controversial Confederate battle flag.

Edwards, 18, said she wasn't allowed inside the prom after school officials told her the dress was "offensive and inappropriate."

"We asked why they thought that, but they kept saying the same thing over and over," she said Monday. "We kept asking people walking inside -- black and white -- and everyone said they loved it. Two black women even went off on the principal. They were upset with the principal. No one was upset with me."

School officials said a teacher warned Edwards about two months ago that the dress might not be acceptable. The teacher, who served as prom sponsor, expressed concern and suggested to Edwards in February that she should clear the idea with the principal, but Edwards did not do so, said Eddie Pruett, director of schools for the Gibson County School System.

Pruett said there have been race-related issues at the high school in recent years and that Principal James Hughes thought Edwards' dress could have caused a problem.

"She was told because of the dress and what it would look like, it would be considered inappropriate," Pruett said. "She had talked with the prom sponsor and they told her it would be inappropriate. ... I feel like Hughes followed legal precedents set by other court cases. Students have legal rights, and we don't infringe upon those. But we have to follow legal precedents, and if there is a reason to believe something could happen, we don't wait until after the fact to do something."

Offer to change is rejected

Edwards said she told several people about her idea and many liked it. Only the one teacher said the dress was a bad idea and that she should check with school administration, she said.

"I didn't talk with administration because we wore rebel flags all through my four years at Gibson County," she said. "I didn't ask for approval because I didn't think I needed to. I had one teacher tell me it was a bad idea. but I just thought she only said that because it would offend people. But I asked a bunch of people before I had the dress made and they all loved the idea."

Kim Lee, Edwards' mother, said her daughter was told by school officials when she arrived at the prom that she could go home and change and then be admitted, but she didn't. About $500 was spent on her hair, makeup, the custom-made dress and her date's apparel, the family said.

Edwards said, in a way, she wanted her dress to look like the Confederate flag because she lives in the South and at the time she didn't know if there was a dress like hers.

She said in her four years as a student, she's seen students wearing clothing bearing the Confederate flag with no incident.

But she said on Monday friends were sending her texts and messages saying school officials were checking for rebel flags and making students hide them as a result of this incident.

'Unfortunate incident'

Pruett said the dress code for each school is left to the discretion of the principal. Pruett was the principal of the high school until the end of the school year in 2011.

"I hate that the girl was not able to attend prom, and this is an unfortunate incident," he said. "But as a school district, we have to look out for the best interest for all students. You have to try to do what's best for every child. Because of past incidents, Mr. Hughes felt that by admitting that dress it could cause a problem that night, or it could continue on throughout the school year."

Monday, April 23, 2012

The Budget and Finance Committee will review request for grants from General Headquarters before the Fall and Spring GEC meetings and prior to the GEC meetings held at the Reunion. The deadline to submit a request for consideration at the Reunion GEC meetings is May 27, 2012.

Those requesting funds should read the Funding Proposal Guidelines found on the Forms and Documents page of scv.org at:

http://www.scv.org/pdf/FundingProposalGuidelines.pdf

The form to be used to make a request for a grant is also on the Forms and Documents page at: http://www.scv.org/pdf/SCVFundRequests.pdf

Submission of the form is the minimum level of information that must be provided to make a funding request. Those making requests are encouraged to provide supplemental information describing their project.

If possible please submit the form as an attachement to an eamil message. If can be sent as hard copy to GHQ if the former method is not used.

If you have any questions regarding the guidelines, form or process please contact me.

Sunday, April 22, 2012

Sen. Cam Ward and Rep. Kurt Wallace worked together this week to stop attempts to take funding away from the Confederate Memorial Park in Mountain Creek.

Other legislators wanted to redistribute that money elsewhere.

“Not only is the Confederate Memorial Park a part of our heritage as Alabamians, it is a tourist attraction for families traveling throughout the state,” Ward said. “The park brings tourism money to our county that is essential to our families’ livelihoods.”

In the Alabama House of Representatives, House Bill 610 would have taken 80 percent of the funding from Confederate Memorial Park and redistributed that money to five other parks, according to Wallace.

“It would have completely destroyed the park and forced it to close,” said Wallace. “We have some hard choices to make in our state budgeting, but cutting tourism dollars for Chilton County is not a choice we are willing to make. Our heritage and our way of life must be defended.”

Confederate Memorial Park is funded, in part, by a property tax that was once used to support Confederate veterans and their wives.

The tax was also used to operate the Alabama Confederate Soldiers’ Home, which was located on what is now park grounds. The veterans home closed in 1939.

According to an Associated Press report from July 2011, the tax brings in more than $400,000 annually for the park

AWARDS PROGRAM FOR NATIONAL CONVENTION
July 11 - 14, 2012 Murfreesboro, Tennessee

The SCV Awards Manual was last revised in February 2012. All awards will be in accordance with this revised edition. The Awards Manual may be downloaded from the SCV website. Previous editions of the Awards Manual are obsolete. Please read the information below to ensure your award submissions reach the proper judges.

Awards Display:

The SCV Awards Display table will be set-up at the National Convention in Murfreesboro, Tennessee near the SCV General Headquarters table by noon on Wednesday, July 11, 2012. This is the drop-off and pick-up point for all SCV awards at the convention.

Best Camp Award - Tabor Award:

Camps who wish to participate in this competition should print a copy of the entry form from the SCV website or they may request one from GHQ if they have no internet access.

All entries should be on the new form approved effective March 19, 2011. Please check and make sure you have the current form. Up-to-date forms are available on the SCV website. Deadline for best camp entry forms is June 15, 2012.

Note: Camps will no longer receive credit for contributions to the Museum of the Confederacy (Richmond) or any subsidy under them such as the Museum of the Confederacy -Appomattox. The MOC’s exhibits have purposely refused in include the Confederate Battle Flag outside the museum. Camps wishing to contribute to a museum which will proudly honor the Confederacy and unequivocally support Confederate History are asked to redirect their contributions to the SCV’s planned new Confederate Museum. Fundraising has now surpassed $400,000 and the national SCV plans to site it with the General Headquarters in Tennessee. Donations should be directed to headquarters and so noted on the camp’s submission forms.

Newsletter Awards:

To ensure that each army has proper representation to be entered in the newsletter competition, four (4) copies of each newsletter issued during the eligibility period must be submitted to the National Awards Committee by June 1, 2012. Eligibility period is the July 2011 issue through the June 2012 issue of the newsletter. See the Awards Manual at the link below for all details that must accompany the entry. Each member below must receive one of the sets in order for the newsletter to be judged. The fourth set is to be sent to the awards chairman which will be displayed on the SCV Awards Table setup in Murfreesboro.

Entries for the scrapbook or historical project awards must be delivered to the awards display table no later than 5:00 PM, Thursday, July 12, 2012. The display table will be adjacent to the SCV Headquarters table at the Reunion. No entries will be accepted after that time. Camps must arrange to pick up their entries on Saturday, prior to the dismantling of the Awards Display Table. Entries not picked up will be discarded at the end of the convention. See the Awards Manual for requirements and details for these awards.

Best Website Award:

SCV units interested in competing for the Best Website Award should submit their URL through the link that will be published on the national website’s front page no later than June 1, 2012.

Judging will be performed by experienced webmasters outside the SCV, based on generally recognized criteria for website excellence. Judging will take place at a randomly chosen time between June 10 and July 10, 2012.

Individual Member Awards:

Nominations for individual member awards should be submitted on the form found at the link below by the Division and Army Commanders, along with a brief statement citing the reason the particular individual should receive the award for which they are nominated. The forms should be sent to Brian Sharp, GHQ Membership Coordinator, at: membership@scv.org, and to Chief of Staff Jim Speicher at colspike@hotmail.com

The submission form should be used for all submission. The form can be downloaded from the SCV website at http://www.scv.org/pdf/awardnominationform12.doc. The form can be submitted in MS Word or scanned and sent as a PDF. These are prefered. They can also be sent by mail.

The forms nominating memebers for awards must be submitted to GHQ no later than May 17, 2012. This will allow time for review, consultation and approval by the Commander in Chief and for the GHQ staff to prepare the awards and include the names in the professionally printed Awards Luncheon Booklet.

Nominations not received by GHQ by the deadline could result in a division’s award recipients not being listed in the Awards Luncheon souvenir booklet.

http://www.scv.org/pdf/AwardsHandbook2012.pdf - see this link for complete information about awards.

Presentation of Awards:

Awards winners will be recognized at the Awards Luncheon on Friday, July 13, 2012 or at the Saturday night banquet on July 14, 2012. Please pick up your awards after the luncheon as well as those of men in your camp to take them home with you. This simple process will save the SCV hundreds of dollars of postage expense and enable the staff to process your dues and new memberships more quickly when they return to GHQ.

Sunday, April 15, 2012

PADUCAH, Ky. – A Confederate history organization has put up a flagpole in western Kentucky near Interstate 24 and plans to fly a large battle flag. The pole is on private land in Reidland at exit 16.

The Paducah Sun reported Kentucky division commander John Suttles of the Sons of Confederate Veterans said the land for a memorial park was donated by a man who had Confederate ancestors. Suttles said the park will contain, besides the flagpole, benches and a circle of bricks to represent fallen Confederate soldiers.

"We are doing this to honor ancestors," Suttles said. "It's the 150th anniversary of the war for Southern independence. People may have mixed feelings about this, but it is historic."

McCracken County Judge-Executive Van Newberry said that doesn't mean people seeing it won't form opinions about Paducah. "There are people that view that flag with disdain," Newberry said. "It's going to be seen by travelers, and we don't need that. That's unfortunate."But he said as long as the group follows county code as they are putting it up, it is protected by the First Amendment.

Sons of Confederate Veterans national executive director Ben Sewell said there are similar flags set up in places all over the South, including along Interstate 65 in Alabama. He said the idea is to put them in high-visibility spots.

"The flag was created to distinguish Confederate soldiers in the war," Sewell said. "Quite frankly, that is all it has ever stood for. It's other people who have put that stigma on it. It is a historical war flag."

A similar memorial was built in 1998 on private land bordering Interstate 65 at the southern edge of Nashville, Tenn. It features an equestrian statute of Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest and 13 poles that display the Confederate battle flag and the flags of those states that were members of the Confederacy.

April 10th, 2012Posted by Steve ScrogginsDebunking Civil War Myths – Long Proven Wrong

The Victors Write the War History, but Should Their Lies be Immortal?

The most persistent and pernicious Big Lie regarding the so-called “Civil War”— more properly called the “War to Prevent Southern Independence”— is this:

Noble and saintly yankees fought the war to abolish slavery; evil Confederates fought to preserve it.

The historical record incontrovertibly refutes this Big Lie and yet it lives on, repeated incessantly by many who know better, and by many, many more who accept without challenge what they were taught in government schools.

The proverbial phrase “the victors write the history” was well-known well before the war.In fact, General Patrick R. Cleburne, arguing for freeing slaves in exchange for military service, warned what would happen should the South’s bid for independence fail:

”… Every man should endeavor to understand the meaning of subjugation before it is too late. … It means that the history of this heroic struggle will be written by the enemy; that our youth will be trained by Northern school teachers; will learn from Northern school books their version of the War, will be impressed by all influences of history and education to regard our gallant dead as traitors, our maimed veterans as fit objects for their derision. …to establish sectional superiority and a more centralised form of government, and to deprive us of our rights and liberties.” –Major General Patrick Cleburne, C.S.A. (Jan. 2, 1864)

Cleburne’s warning was indeed prophetic. The Big Lie is the official myth taught in virtually every public school in the country. Jim Dean noted this above, and he even went to a fancy prep school for two years in Massachusetts.

It is the myth believed and repeated incessantly by most Americans who never looked any deeper than the textbook they were issued in junior high history class. And when FDR’s New Dealers migrated from government service to academia in Southern universities, they made sure the Big Lie was taught down here in the South.

The facts and the historical record, which we will review below, are widely and easily available, but unfortunately most Americans don’t see it as their duty to understand American history in more depth than was offered in the superficial, comic-book summary they heard in government schools.

“It is a testament to the effectiveness of 140 years of government propaganda that a 308 page book filled with true facts about Lincoln could be entitled “The Lincoln No One Knows.” It is not a matter of a poorly-performing government education system but quite the opposite:The government schools have performed superbly in indoctrinating generations of American school children with a pack of lies, myths, omissions, and falsehoods about Lincoln and his war of conquest.

As Richard Bensel wrote in Yankee Leviathan, any study of the American state should begin in 1865. The power of any state ultimately rests upon a series of government-sponsored myths, and there is none more prominent than the Lincoln Myth.” –Thomas DiLorenzo, from The Unknown Lincoln

Saturday, April 14, 2012

April is celebrated as Confederate History and Heritage month in Texas. Shelby County enlisted men at Shelbyville and Buena Vista when the war broke out, many thinking their term of enlistment would be for no more than one year. Soldiers from Shelby County served in companies in the following regiments; 3rd Texas Cavalry Co. E (made up also with men from San Augustine County), 28th Texas Cavalry companies A and K, and the 11th Texas Infantry.

The 3rd Texas Cavalry was the first Texas Cavalry unit to serve outside of Texas during the war and fought in the battles of Wilson’s Creek, Vicksburg, Atlanta, Nashville and served as part of the rear guard that enabled General John Bell Hood’s Army of Tennessee to escape total capture.

The 28th Texas Cavalry was dismounted in 1862 and served as an infantry unit for the remainder of the war under the leadership of General Horace Randal. They were later placed in General Walker’s Texas Division under the 2nd Brigade. The unit fought in the battles of Mansfield and Pleasant Hill, Louisiana. They then moved into Arkansas and fought in the swamp of the battle of Jenkin’s Ferry. During the battle General Randal was killed.

The 11th Texas Infantry was under the leadership of Col. Oran Roberts and served in the same brigade as the 28th Texas (dismounted) cavalry. They also fought in the same battles as the 28th. Their participation in the Mansfield and Pleasant Hill Battleskept the Union Army from invading East Texas and capturing Shreveport.151 years ago, on April 12, 1861 the war began by the firing on Fort Sumter, South Carolina. Other famous battles fought in the month of April were: the battle of Shiloh, aka Pittsburgh Landing on April 6, 1862, the battle of Mansfield on April 9, 1864, and the battle of Pleasant Hill on April 10, 1864. On April 10, 1865 Major General Robert E. Lee surrendered his Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox Courthouse.

Over 250 confederate soldiers were buried in cemeteries in Shelby County. we ask you to remember the sacrifice these men gave regarding leaving their families and homes.

MOBILE, Alabama — On Sunday, the sounds of muskets and cannon fire will echo over downtown Mobile as the “Confederate Rest” section of Magnolia Cemetery is recognized for 150 years of use.

More than 1,100 soldiers who died in battle during the Civil War are buried at the site, which is one of the older memorials in the 1830s-era cemetery located at 1202 Virginia St. Originally called “Soldiers’ Rest,” the site was opened for use in 1862 and features a large obelisk, surrounded by marble gravestones and smaller memorials at its four corners.

Those memorials are dedicated to the Mobile Cadets, the Alabama State Artillery, the crew of the H.L. Hunley submarine and Gen. Braxton Bragg, who is entombed there. A.J. “Joe” DuPree, memorials chairman for Raphael Semmes Camp 11 of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, said the 2 p.m. Sunday service will include brief ceremonies at each of the four corners, featuring a person or topic of speech related to its subject.

“Each time we do that, there will be a volley of musketry and a cannon fire to resonate in memory of those people and the sesquicentennial,” DuPree said. In honor of the Mobile Cadets, the great-grandson of Cadet Capt. Robert M. Sands will speak, he said. Confederate re-enactors will participate in the memorial to the state artillery, and the Hunley monument will be memorialized by the president of the Electra Semmes Colston Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy. That chapter erected the Hunley memorial, DuPree said.

The Raphael Semmes Camp 11 president will speak at Bragg’s tomb, he said. “There will be people there in period uniform firing reproduction period weapons,” DuPree said. “The idea is that we continue to honor these peoples’ memories. “They’re dead but not gone.”

The overall ceremony will have several purposes. It will not only celebrate Confederate Rest and serve as part of the four-year recognition of the 150th anniversary of the Civil War, it will also celebrate Confederate Memorial Day which, in Alabama, will be celebrated on April 23 this year.

For DuPree, whose great-grandfather fought for the Confederacy, memorials such as Confederate Rest are a crucial part of historical responsibility in a free society. “What they did is important because it was a heroic thing,” he said. “In the state of Alabama, 25 percent of the men of military age died in this war. And it gives you a sense of their devotion to the cause of liberty.

“A place like this shows you that there was actually a time when people would die because they believed that they gave government rights, government didn’t give them rights. That’s a remarkable thing.”

I hope that you read the recent message on the Telegraph concerning the CSA Sesquicentennial Commemorative Coin Collection. Furthermore, I hope that you took notice of the fundraising opportunity made available to all divisions.When you purchase a coin, simply use your division’s promotion code (the two-character postal code for that state). This will earn $12 for your division -- with 3000 coins of each state planned, you can see that this could be quite rewarding.

At the end of my message, you’ll see some information on how to maximize this opportunity for your division.

The Centennial period of 50 years ago was much different than today. It was not unusual to find items paying homage to the people and the states of the Confederacy. Today, it is up to the SCV to offer those unique keepsakes to the public – and this coin series does just that.

So, if you haven’t seen the coins yet, go to csacoins.com and take a look. I’m proud to tell you that this program has the full support and cooperation of the highest level of this organization. You can own a first quality silver coin, pay tribute to our ancestors and help your division earn needed funds as we look to the Sequicentennial and beyond in our responsibilities to defend The Charge.

Above you will find a picture of the icon that has been created and can be used and sent out to anyone that would like to help promote the program. Under the picture of the icon is the code that will be used to add the picture that is a live link. Do not try to capture the picture in this email. Copy and paste the code to your webpage. The web masters maintaining your web pages will know what to do with the code and can modify it if needed.We encourage all Divisions, Camps, and any other websites to place this link on your web pages. Promotion of this project benefits us all.

Friday, April 6, 2012

For 110 years, the numbers stood as gospel: 618,222 men died in the Civil War,360,222 from the North and 258,000 from the South —by far the greatest toll of any war in American history.

But new research shows that the numbers were far too low.By combing through newly digitized census data from the 19th century, J. David Hacker, a demographic historian from Binghamton University in New York, has recalculated the death toll and increased it by more than 20 percent — to 750,000.

The new figure is already winning acceptance from scholars. Civil War History, the journal that published Dr. Hacker’s paper, called it “among the most consequential pieces ever to appear” in its pages. And a pre-eminent authority on the era, Eric Foner, a historian at Columbia University, said:

“It even further elevates the significance of the Civil War and makes a dramatic statement about how the war is a central moment in American history. It helps you understand, particularly in the South with a much smaller population, what a devastating experience this was.”

The old figure dates back well over a century, the work of two Union Army veterans who were passionate amateur historians: William F. Fox and Thomas Leonard Livermore.Fox, who had fought at Antietam, Chancellorsville and Gettysburg, knew well the horrors of the Civil War. He did his research the hard way, reading every muster list, battlefield report and pension record he could find.

In his 1889 treatise “Regimental Losses in the American Civil War, 1861-1865,” Fox presented an immense mass of information. Besides the aggregate death count, researchers could learn that the Fifth New Hampshire lost more soldiers (295 killed) than any other Union regiment; that Gettysburg and Waterloo were almost equivalent battles, with each of the four combatant armies suffering about 23,000 casualties; that the Union Army had 166 regiments of black troops; and that the average Union soldier was 5 feet 8 1/4 inches tall and weighed 143 1/2 pounds.

Fox’s estimate of Confederate battlefield deaths was much rougher, however: a “round number” of 94,000, a figure compiled from after-action reports. In 1900, Livermore set out to make a more complete count. In his book, “Numbers and Losses in the Civil War in America, 1861-65,” he reasoned that if the Confederates had lost proportionally the same number of soldiers to disease as the Union had, the actual number of Confederate dead should rise to 258,000.And that was that. The Fox-Livermore numbers continued to be cited well into the 21st century, even though few historians were satisfied with them. Among many others, James M. McPherson used them without citing the source in “Battle Cry of Freedom,” his Pulitzer-winning 1988 history of the war.

Enter Dr. Hacker, a specialist in 19th-century demographics, who was accustomed to using a system called the two-census method to calculate mortality. That method compares the number of 20-to-30-year-olds in one census with the number of 30-to-40-year-olds in the next census, 10 years later. The difference in the two figures is the number of people who died in that age group.

Pretty simple — but, Dr. Hacker soon realized, too simple for counting Civil War dead. Published census data from the era did not differentiate between native-born Americans and immigrants; about 500,000 foreign-born soldiers served in the Union Army alone.

“If you have a lot of immigrants age 20 moving in during one decade, it looks like negative mortality 10 years later,” Dr. Hacker said. While the Census Bureau in 1860 asked people their birthplace, the information never made it into the printed report.

As for Livermore’s assumption that deaths from disease could be correlated with battlefield deaths, Dr. Hacker found that wanting too. The Union had better medical care, food and shelter, especially in the war’s final years, suggesting that Southern losses to disease were probably much higher. Also, research has shown that soldiers from rural areas were more susceptible to disease and died at a higher rate than city dwellers. The Confederate Army had a higher percentage of farm boys.

Dr. Hacker said he realized in 2010 that a rigorous recalculation could finally be made if he used newly available detailed census data presented on the Internet by the Minnesota Population Center at the University of Minnesota.

The center’s Integrated Public Use Microdata Series had put representative samples of in-depth, sortable information for individuals counted in 19th-century censuses. This meant that by sorting by place of birth, Dr. Hacker could count only the native-born. Another hurdle was what Dr. Hacker called the “dreadful” 1870 census, a badly handled undercount taken when the ashes of the war were still warm. But he reasoned a way around that problem.

Because the census takers would quite likely have missed as many women as men, he decided to look at the ratio of male to female deaths in 1870. Next, he examined mortality figures from the decades on either side of the war — the 1850s and 1870s — so that he could get an idea of the “normal” ratio of male to female deaths for a given decade. When he compared those ratios to that of 1860-70, he reasoned, he would see a dramatic spike in male mortality. And he did. Subtracting normal attrition from the male side of the equation left him with a rough estimate of war dead.

It was a better estimate than Fox and Livermore had produced, but Dr. Hacker made it clear that his was not the final answer. He had made several assumptions, each of which stole accuracy from the final result. Among them: that there were no war-related deaths of white women; that the expected normal mortality rate in the 1860s would be the average of the rates in the 1850s and 1870s; that foreign soldiers died at the same rate as native-born soldiers; and that the War Department figure of 36,000 black war dead had to be accepted as accurate because black women suffered so terribly both during and after the war that they could not be used as a control for male mortality.

The study had two significant shortcomings. Dr. Hacker could make no estimate of civilian deaths, an enduring question among historians, “because the overall number is too small relative to the overall number of soldiers killed.” And he could not tell how many of the battlefield dead belonged to each side.

“You could assume that everyone born in the Deep South fought for the Confederacy and everyone born in the North fought for the Union,” he said. “But the border states were a nightmare, and my confidence in the results broke down quickly.” With all the uncertainties, Dr. Hacker said, the data suggested that 650,000 to 850,000 men died as a result of the war; he chose the midpoint as his estimate.

He emphasized that his methodology was far from perfect. “Part of me thinks it is just a curiosity,” he said of the new estimate. “But wars have profound economic, demographic and social costs,” he went on. “We’re seeing at least 37,000 more widows here, and 90,000 more orphans. That’s a profound social impact, and it’s our duty to get it right.”

Augusta and Aiken's stretch of U.S. Highway 1 have several markers identifying the road as Jefferson Davis Memorial Highway, including over the Fifth Street bridge.

But if the history of Jefferson Davis Highway starts in the South, it doesn't end there.

The United Daughters of the Confederacy launched plans for a coast-to-coast highway commemorating Davis in 1913. It was common in the years just before World War I for private organizations to name a stretch of highway for their cause. The transcontinental Lincoln Highway, for instance, was proposed in 1912 by industrialist Carl Fisher, who also developed Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Miami Beach.

UDC President-General Mrs. Alexander B. White wanted a similar route through the South and announced the project at the group's 1913 convention.

In her annual report, she recommended "that the United Daughters of the Confederacy secure for an ocean-to-ocean highway from Washington to San Diego, through the Southern States, the name of Jefferson Davis National Highway."

Besides the main route, there would be two other routes: one from Davis' birthplace in Fairview, Ky., to his home in Beauvoir, Miss., and the other following his route after the Civil War through Irwinsville, Ga.

The official marker along the route had three 6-inch wide bands of red, white and blue and the letters "JDH." The national highway was eventually extended north along the Pacific Coast to Washington State in 1939.

A brochure on the highway published in 1948 by the UDC says Augusta's Fifth Street bridge was dedicated June 3, 1932, by the group's South Carolina and Georgia chapters.

By the mid-1920s, there were more than 250 "official" highways, ranging from the Yellowstone Trail to the Dixie Highway. This generated confusion for the growing number of motorists, so a number system was developed by state and federal officials in 1926.

Some of the named trails had to go. In the scramble to preserve Jefferson Davis Highway, U.S. Rep. Earl B. Mayfield, of Texas, emerged as an advocate.

In a 1925 letter to Chief Thomas H. MacDonald, of the U.S. Bureau of Public Roads, Mayfield defended a road that touched all but four Southern capitals. The federal response detailed the general confusion about where exactly Jefferson Davis Highway traveled.

E.W. James, the secretary of the Joint Board on Interstate Highways, wrote that a "careful search" in "our extensive map file" showed three Jefferson Davis Highways.

One extended from Miami to Los Angeles, and another traveled the Kentucky-to-Mississippi route. There was not a route from Washington, D.C., to San Francisco in their records.

"(T)he routes on these maps are themselves different and neither route is approximately that described by you, so that I am somewhat at a loss as to just what route your constituents are interested in," James wrote.

Ultimately, the Lincoln Highway and the Jefferson Davis highway were broken up among several numbers in November 1926.

DeeLois Lawrence, the national chairman of the UDC's Jefferson Davis Memorial Association, is collecting information on markers from across the United States. Vandalism isn't always an issue with these markers because they are often placed in areas with heavy traffic, she said, but with the misconceptions surrounding the Civil War, it's always a risk.

"We have a population that if you say anything Confederate, it's wrong," she said.

RICHMOND, Va. – The decision of a state-run museum to prohibit the display of Confederate flags outside the historic Confederate chapel it controls has prompted an ongoing protest by Southern heritage activists in front of the museum every weekend since last October.

The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (VMFA) in Richmond controls the historic Pelham Chapel — also known as the Confederate Memorial Chapel — on its grounds. Its $1 a year lease with the Sons of Confederate Veterans for the chapel barred the outside flags.

The property dates from the 1883 sale of a house and 36 acres to R.E. Lee Camp No. 1, Confederate Veterans, for a Confederate soldiers’ camp, or home.

Donors to the home included Union veterans from Lynn, Mass., who gave the chapel organ. The chapel, which features stained-glass windows and hand-hewn pews, was dedicated to Confederate war dead in 1887.

The house and chapel are all that remain of the camp, which operated from 1885 to 1941. After the last veterans died the property was deeded to the commonwealth.

By Executive Order 35 in 1991, the VMFA acts as the governor’s agent in leasing the chapel to the SCV. Lee-Jackson Camp No. 1 of Richmond opens the chapel for tours. The lease is renewed every five years.

At its March 31, 2010, meeting the VMFA Board of Trustees’ Executive Committee unanimously passed two motions concerning the chapel: First, the museum would not renew the existing lease as written. Second, the museum “is opposed to flying the Confederate Battle Flag or any of its derivatives on the Museum property.”

The lease in 1999, which was renewed in 2004, allowed Camp No. 1 “to hang the Camp’s two Confederate flags only from the hardware permanently installed outside on the front of the Chapel porch to honor the memory of the Confederate dead who are memorialized at this site and premises.”

The new five-year lease read “Confederate national flags and battle flags may be prominently displayed at all times inside the sanctuary of this War Memorial to honor the memory of the dead Confederate soldiers, sailors and marines to whom the premises is dedicated, but no such flags may be flown on the exterior of the premises.”

According to several people familiar with the negotiations, the VMFA presented the new lease to the SCV on a “take it or leave it” basis. The SCV signed it on May 19, 2010.

The Flaggers

The newly formed Virginia Flaggers began “flagging” the VMFA on Oct. 1, 2011, and has done so every Saturday since then, according to spokesperson Susan Hathaway.

Flagging is when people demonstrate peacefully at a site by carrying and waving Confederate flags there. Hathaway’s group stands on street corners around the art museum’s buildings in downtown Richmond holding Confederate flags to protest the VMFA’s exclusion of Confederate flags from the chapel porch.

Although the group is not affiliated with the SCV or United Daughters of the Confederacy, eight of the nine flaggers present when Civil War News interviewed them said they belong to these hereditary Confederate heritage groups.

Hathaway wrote to VMFA Director Alex Nyerges last Oct. 25 that the ban on exterior flags more than a year earlier “is a direct insult to our ancestors, and the 260,000 Confederate soldiers who died during the war, who are memorialized by the Chapel and its designation as a War Memorial.”

She told him the Saturday flaggers talk to people who did not know about the lease provision and distribute fliers detailing the museum’s discrimination against American veterans. “Several people were so angered after hearing our story and reading the literature, that they turned around and did not visit the Museum as they had planned.”

She wrote, “We would ask that you not insult our intelligence … and call the act what it really is … a bow to political correctness and an affront to the men who built that Chapel in memory of their fallen comrades.”

Nyerges’ written response on Oct. 28 noted that “A review of documents and images dating back to the time of the Soldiers’ Home and through subsequent decades after the Commonwealth acquired the property in 1941 reveal that no flags hung from the Chapel.”

Lee-Jackson Camp No. 1 hung the battle flags after it began leasing the chapel in 1993. “When renewing that lease in 2010, VMFA asked that the flags be removed, which returned the historic structure to its original appearance,” Nyerges wrote.

This echoes what VMFA Chief Officer, Collections and Facilities Management, Stephen D. Bonadies said in an interview: “Our perspective is, what is historically appropriate and accurate?”

He said the museum takes its mission to interpret the Confederate memorial park site seriously. He noted that the VMFA has spent $250,000 on maintenance for the chapel since 1998, including a new roof, exterior paint and restoration of some of the stained-glass windows.

Over the past year, the VMFA has placed four interpretive signs on the grounds which tell the story of the Confederate Soldiers’ Home.

Bonadies said the VMFA is trying to interpret the postbellum era, when the soldiers’ home was established on the site. He also met with Hathaway in October.

“There is no reason to install a flag on the chapel,” he said.

“We are not going anywhere,” she recently said of the flaggers. “We’re in it for the long haul. We’ll be out there until the flags come back up.”